The world is increasingly shifting to online shopping and has chosen Amazon as its flagbearer. The site’s efforts toward customer satisfaction have resulted in it building the kind of trust that attracts traffic in the millions. Third-party sellers have played a vital role in establishing that trust by doing their part in supporting customers throughout the sales funnel.
However, another component of this ecosystem that neither party contributes to but that matters as much as any other is Amazon product reviews and ratings.
There is no better marketer of your products than customers who have already bought them. Proof of that is provided by Amazon itself, which has found that 77% of customers looking to purchase a product will go through reviews and ratings before finalizing the transaction. That is why Amazon has provided a robust customer feedback mechanism. Sellers can use this to improve their listing and eStore reviews and ratings.
Here are some more reasons why product reviews for Amazon are the key to your online store’s success:
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Your Products Will Rank High In Search Results
Online shoppers have a strong transactional intent. Most of them want their desired item to be found, bought, and delivered as soon as possible. So they search for that product using certain keywords, like the product’s name, type, brand, etc.
On the resultant search result page, the first few listings are more likely to get that sale. So, you must make sure they see your product on top of those results.
Customer reviews/ratings play a role in determining where your listings rank. According to many Amazon experts, the A9 search algorithm also considers customer reviews as criteria while deciding to rank products in respective search results. The more positive the reviews and ratings, the higher the ranking. And the greater the chances of you making a conversion.
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Amazon Product Review Provides Word-Of-Mouth Marketing
Word-of-mouth has always been a staple of marketing. This is because people are likely to trust a person that has used that product over a company representative selling it. Amazon’s customer reviews and rating section does this very thing on a much larger scale. It lets prospective customers of a product learn about the experience it provides via others who are currently using it or have used it in the past.
So, even if that prospective buyer doesn’t know anyone close to them who has purchased and used that product, they are not deprived of the opportunity to learn about it from a third person. This means you will likely gain a new customer instead of a bounce.
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They Can Help Improve Your Products
Market research is vital to creating products that customers want to buy. But that research doesn’t end during the initial stages of product development. The feedback that customers give after using the finished product is crucial to improving it. Manufacturers cannot foresee all the problems that may occur during a product’s usage as they don’t have the time to test the product that long. Thus, they rely upon customers to provide that information.
If you’re a vendor on Amazon, this feedback gives you direct insights into your products and the development lifecycle. If you’re a seller, you can learn more about the product and improve your description writing, along with passing on that information to the OEM.
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They Improve Your Product Lineup
Following on the heels of improving your products themselves, Amazon customer reviews help improve your product lineup too. You are likely to make more sales if your product listings are in line with what the majority of your target audience is looking for. You may find information about what your customers want in the review section for a given period, enabling you to maximize current trends. It also lets you predict possible upcoming trends, which you can use to prepare for and change your product lineup accordingly.
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You Get Information About Your Competitors
Competitor research is a proven way to improve your overall business process. You can learn what is working for them and what isn’t, helping you keep up with them or even outdo them. There are many sources that competitor research experts use to gather such important information ethically, one of which is customer reviews.
There are two ways you can gain information about your competitors through customers’ words. One is by analyzing the comments your competitors have received for their products and services. This is a more direct and time-saving approach but requires you to go through many reviews on many product pages of many competitors.
The other way is to analyze your product pages to find information that may have been provided by your customers who have used your competitors’ products and services. This is a game of chance but provides vital insights and direct comparisons about factors that may keep you ahead of your competitors or behind them. Either way, this kind of Amazon customer feedback will help you get an edge over the competition.
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They Aid Your Marketing Efforts
Word-of-mouth isn’t the only type of marketing benefit you get from customer reviews and ratings. They contribute to every kind of marketing effort you could make on Amazon and beyond.
Your PPC campaigns’ CTR benefits greatly when you include high ratings in the ads. Likewise, with the inclusion of reviews. Such inclusions let the ad viewer know that your products/brand is trustworthy and have/has a proven track record of delivering on customer satisfaction. This builds trust and leads to increased traffic and conversions, especially with new customers.
Your SEO campaigns also get a boost since Amazon product reviews and ratings are important factors that the A9 algorithm considers while ranking your products in search result pages. The more the number of positive feedback elements, the higher the ranking. This also applies to your Sponsored Products ads; they will rank higher in search results pages if the product being advertised by them has lots of positive feedback.
Besides Amazon’s marketplace, these help you build your brand presence on other digital avenues too. Google’s search algorithm also prefers highly-rated products, so your products will appear prominently in google search results too, and in its “Shopping” section in particular. That is guaranteed to shoot up traffic to your product page.
Your social media marketing also reaches new heights. You can directly post your product reviews for Amazon purchases on your social media pages or let customers provide those reviews and ratings there. This will boost engagement on your social media accounts, spreading your brand name further and deepening brand trust simultaneously.
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Your Customers Feel More Involved
Any customer will feel happy and empowered when they can actively contribute to developing and improving their favorite products. With reviews and ratings, they can do that easily.
A few sentences and taps/clicks to the star-based rating system are all it takes to change a product or the service they get possibly. Such engagement helps retain customers as they will feel that they matter and can get the product they want.
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You Can Directly Interact With Your Customers
In traditional shopping, buyers interact with sellers directly before making a purchase. Online shopping doesn’t provide that opportunity, except in the review section. In conjunction with the Q and A section, Amazon product reviews give sellers on the platform an opportunity to reply to customers’ questions and statements.
You can ask customers about their motivation behind a negative review and assure them of rectifying the underlying cause. You can also take customers who leave behind positive comments and reviews, making them feel valued. These acts enhance a customer’s trust in your service, helping to retain them and spread your brand name through such positive experiences of theirs.
In Conclusion
Business deals have always been a two-way affair between seller and buyer. Online shopping via sites like Amazon introduced a new paradigm that has significantly reduced the interaction opportunities that made such seller-customer engagement possible.
Amazon customer reviews and ratings help bridge this communication gap while offering sellers many other benefits. Thus, they form a vital part of online selling that you can’t ignore, and their upkeep is something you should work on to keep your business heading in the right direction.
Featured Image Credit: Photo by Kampus Production; Pexels; Thank you!
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